Late Bronze Age to Iron Age activity and post-medieval field boundaries, NE Chelmsford Bypass sites TT03-TT05, South of Drakes Lane (EHER 80776)

Trial trenching in area TT05 recorded a Late Bronze Age unurned cremation and a Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pit and ditch, in the NE corner of the evaluated area. A concentration of Iron Age activity was also recorded in area TT03 in the form of an Iron Age sub-circular enclosure and associated field system. The features produced small quantities of Iron Age pottery as well as animal bone, flint and fired clay. Elsewhere a single medieval ditch in area TT04 produced a small quantity of medieval pottery, and post-medieval field boundary ditches in area TT03 produced low concentrations of heavily abraded brick, tile, glass and clay tobacco pipe.

August 2021. Trial trenching. Evaluation recovered a large assemblage of Late Bronze Age to Later Iron Age pottery from Area TT03, almost all of which comes from a ditch in Trench 138. Also found within this ditch was a potential fragment of Iron Age loomweight. This trench, as well as Trenches 105, 123, 130, 133 and 135, had been positioned to investigate a roughly circular cropmark anomaly evident in aerial photography and it would seem from the finds that the cropmark is probably an Iron Age sub-circular enclosure; given the domestic nature of the pottery and the presence of a probable loomweight it can be assumed this enclosure had a primarily domestic function. A small concentration of prehistoric activity was also recorded in the NE corner of area TT05. Trench 184 contained a Late Bronze Age unurned cremation, and a Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pit and ditch. Other Late Bronze Age unurned cremation burials have also been recorded in this landscape by this programme of evaluation in areas TT06, TT07, TT09 and further North at TT16 (see EHER 80777, EHER 80778 and EHER 80780), and by trial trenching in 2014 at EHER 49015. They may represent a local practice of separate groups in the Late Bronze Age, some conducting isolated unurned cremations and others conducting urned cremations in closer proximity to their habitation site, as seen at the present day Bulls Lodge quarry site (see EHER 46881, EHER 46213 and EHER 46463). Alternatively, they might reflect stratification of one population/group with higher status individuals being cremated and deposited in vessels, while lower status burials were positioned more remotely and were unurned. The trench also contained two undated post holes and an undated ditch terminus. A single undated ditch in area TT04 may be an extension of the field system identified in area TT03, though without firm dating evidence (which the ditch did not yield) it is difficult to say. The artefactual evidence produced comprised a small quantity of flint, some animal bone and a single iron object. The only other feature in this area, an early medieval ditch, produced a moderate assemblage of medieval pottery. Whilst it is difficult to draw a certain conclusion from a single feature, the proximity of this feature to Drakes Lane may be the source of this material, with refuse discarded on the road collecting in nearby ditches. Post-medieval field boundary ditches were recorded in Area TT03 in Trenches 97, 102, 109, 115, 121, 128, 135 and 138. The medieval to post-medieval finds in TT03 were heavily abraded fragments of brick, tile, glass and clay tobacco pipe and were found in low concentrations across the area. All appear to be of post-medieval date and their condition and concentration suggests deposition within manuring deposits further dispersed by later agricultural activity. The exception to this may be a 1699 half penny which is probably an accidental loss. <1>